Suggested Discussion Outline

[johnkarls]

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Suggested Discussion Outline -- The S.P.C.H. (The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to HUMANS)

A. The S.P.C.A. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ANIMALS)

A-1. Organization (or lack thereof)

A-1-a. The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was founded in the U.K. in 1824
A-1-b. The American SPCA (ASPCA) was founded in NYC in 1866
A-1-c. There are zillions of SPCA’s operating in the U.S. and many more zillions of SPCA’s operating around the world
A-1-d. There is NO umbrella organization -- all (or virtually all) of the organizations calling themselves SPCA’s, even in the U.S., are independent of each other.

A-2. Accomplishments

A-2-a. In 1928, ASPCA vets first used anesthesia on horses
A-2-b. In 1954, ASPCA hospitals added pathology and radiology laboratories and programs
A-2-c. In 1961, ASPCA vets performed their first open-heart surgery on a dog

A-3. Sample of Services Provided By The ASPCA

A-3-a. Animal rescue
A-3-b. Euthanasia of non-adoptable pets
A-3-c. Facilitating adoption of adoptable pets
A-3-d. Spay/neuter clinics serving low-income communities
A-3-e. 24-hour animal poison control line
A-3-f. Free expert training and behavior advice
A-3-g. Pet loss support services for those who are grieving


B. The S.P.C.H. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to HUMANS) aka Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative

B-1. Founded in 1989 in Alabama (per pp. 67-68 of Just Mercy)
B-2. Staff of only 50 attorneys and social workers (per EJI’s website)
B-3. Its objectives (per EJI’s website) are opposing: (1) Race and Poverty, (2) Children in Prison, (3) Mass Incarceration, and (4) the Death Penalty


C. Suggested Discussion Questions

C-1. No disrespect to the wonderful work done and being done by the ASPCA, but why does America love animals more than human beings???

C-2. Why does America shun its Permanent "Untouchable" Under-Caste comprising 30% of its population occupying its inner-city Ghettos???

C-3. Why does America pretend that its Apartheid “Justice” System treats minorities and the poor fairly???

C-4. As we have studied many times in the past, isn’t “Justice” in America reserved for those who can afford law firms whose senior partners stroke the egos of the judges they “own” at the local country club???

C-5. Doesn’t Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy describe how this Apartheid “Justice” System works in the context of criminal justice where seemingly-just rules of law are easily perverted???

C-6. Doesn’t Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy fail to even reach The Big Leagues where judges simply make decrees that they know are diametrically-opposed to well-settled law and then order their decisions not to be published or cited (a strategy labeled “the segregated toilet” in correspondence with 51 inner-city clergy who represented 10 million inner-city children in an unsuccessful petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case) in order to flush away the rights of the 10 million inner-city children without disturbing the rights of first-class American citizens???

[For details, please see the third and fourth sections of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org concerning “Inner-City Holocaust and America's Apartheid ‘Justice’ System (In Honor of Jonathan Kozol and In Memory of John Howard Griffin)”]

C-7. Doesn’t support for Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative present a moral quandary???

C-7-a. On the one hand, doesn't support for the Equal Justice Initiative, like support for the ASPCA, assist those that are oppressed by American society???

C-7-b. But, on the other hand, doesn't it permit Morally-Bankrupt America to salve its conscience (if, indeed, America has a conscience) with the false belief that inequities are sufficiently addressed???

C-7-c. Isn’t it better to support both the ASPCA and the Equal Justice Initiative because Morally-Bankrupt America will salve its conscience (if, indeed, America has a conscience) with whatever straws are available for grasping, no matter how ridiculous???